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PSL: Who Gets to Write the “True Narrative”, from Marissa Sanchez (theyeisblind.substack.com)
submitted 6 days ago by to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net
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For whatever it means for you comrades, my former branch is absolutely falling apart. Leadership has had to be constantly engaged with comrades 1:1 to get them to stay or to not leave for other projects or lifeboat groups who're trying to keep party members; and it means a ton of people who wanted to do other things are just burning out like flies. My local branch has, I think, tipped right overboard into some extremely inexcusable tactics and behavior; and my disappointment is immeasurable.

I understand I'm posting about this a lot, so, Mods or Admins feel free to tell me to stop, I just want this to be on people's radars so bad. This hasn't really hit the mainstream "left" yet, I haven't seen people even locally who've taken an anti-party stance for a long time (correct or not) talking about this.

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[–] 4 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I agree, but the structure to be able to struggle has to be there and there have to be other people willing to engage in that struggle. I live on the other side of the world so have no idea what is taking place on the ground but this whole story sounds extremely weird to me. Either no one knows how a centralised democracy should work (which would be a fault of PSL onboarding process, which should teach people), no is willing to struggle for the party or the party does not have a true democratic structure.

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 5 days ago (3 children)

    It is the latter, internal discussion has been closed on this and there is no mechanism to open it. There is no recall system, and in fact there is the mistaken belief by national that it is more turbulent for leaders to have to step down rather than to face issues like this.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 days ago

    belief by national that it is more turbulent for leaders to have to step down rather than to face issues like this

    This is rather revealing of the nature of "leadership". You can either define it rigorously which means having specific roles that have expertise and commitment requirements, don't always overlap, and don't always rank themselves in a chain of command or pecking order, or you can allow the propensity for domination and deference to emerge, and "leader" just ends up becoming "that person who is above all these followers/members" and voilà, you have internally replicated a class dynamic.

    A party/movement with a quorum of Parliamentarians, a quorum of Mentors, a quorum of Strategists, a quorum of Spokespeople, a quorum of Taskmasters, and a quorum of (diplomats, recruiters, negotiators, whatever you want to call external relations that's not just communication) is going to accomplish many things at once. It will not have a strong of a leader/follower dichotomy, it will allow more people to be involved in distinguished roles, it will allow people in each role to specialize better and not stretch themselves thin, it will limit the potential benefit of infiltration, it will make it a lot harder to try to blackmail or compromise or decapitate the leadership, and it will make the organization "fairer" to the rank and file while still keeping confidentiality.

    You can still have a vanguard party with this model. You can possibly even have a DemCent party with this model too.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Super disappointing to hear. By the way that PSL has been praised on this platform before I’d expected that they had their democratic structures in order. I hope you found or can find another way to organize locally in a safer environment

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